Building Projects Moving Forward

Building Homes: Now that we’ve finished the first 3-month term of school, the students are off for a month (’til January 2), so we’re taking advantage of the best time of the year to harvest and build with bamboo. A few days ago, before most of the students went home for the break, they hauled about 300 pieces of bamboo out of the jungle. Now a crew of teachers and students have started building / rebuilding homes for staff and guests. Since our family has a house to live in (which will eventually become the school office), the top priority projects include two or three “guest houses” to host volunteers who are coming.

Of course, we are eager to see the day when work actually begins on our house. Typically, the homes built by Karen refugees are almost all bamboo, with teak posts in the ground and teak leaf roofs. The bamboo is free, and teak leaves are not costly; however, every year or two much of the roofing must be replaced (which gets everything in the house dirty with crumbled leaves), and bamboo flooring does not last long either. Our plan is to build with a wood frame and floor and manufactured roofing materials and then use bamboo walls. This design will retain some of the traditional flavor while it should not require the degree of maintenance. Because it is illegal in Thailand to cut the teak trees (except, perhaps, after going through a lot of red tape), we have to purchase our lumber from Burma. It isn’t cheap, and it can take two or three months to get it sometimes. (I was surprised recently to learn how long it can take.) Thus the earlier we receive the funds necessary to order lumber, the better. Funds that come in for our family’s support beyond our goal will help to purchase lumber and other school needs. (Another priority that God has helped us meet is to use overflow funds to subsidize the purchase of brown rice. This is the second month that the students will have a diet of around 50% brown rice.)

Village Meetings: I asked you to pray for our meetings to be held in a village about an hour from here. Those meetings were to start yesterday; however, our local lay pastor who had invited me to hold the meetings came down with shingles, and due to other health problems he ended up deciding to admit himself to the hospital. At this point, the meetings have been postponed to next week or later. Your continued prayers are certainly appreciated. Preparation for meetings can be very time consuming, and I have plenty to do already, so I continue to pray that God will open and close doors as He sees best.

One more important matter: Please consider helping us reach the finish line on the purchase of the 100 acres across the road. We are thankful that 3/4 has been paid, and we are on our way toward raising the last US$65,000. However, we still need more than $40,000 to reach that goal. Would you consider investing in the future of these Karen children this Christmas? Click here to learn how to donate.